Opinions grew when the ad for SBY’s campaign uses the jingle of Indomie ad, words varied from saying that it is such a creative step due to the use of publicly familiar jingle to those who resent it with the reason it merely duplicates the song whilst only changing the lyrics.  We, in this case, have also received those two opposite opinions.
It all started with a question from Mr. Indra Abidin “Is it true that the jingle “SBY,Presidenku” (SBY, my president”) has the tune similar to the jingle of Indomie/Indofood? If that so, does it mean that the campaign jingle is a work of copying? If it is a work of copying, has there been any permission granted or has the campaign team bought the copyright of the jingle? Ifall those are confirmed, does the campaign of SBY have the same value with Indomie? Doesn’t it mean that when we see/hear the jingle/ TV ad of SBY campaign with that particular jingle, it is Indomie that the audience recalls?”
Those above questions then invited various opinions;“It as a smart step from SBY, since the jingle is easy to understand and has been the top of mind considering the fact that Indomie is consumed by almost everyone.” Creative or not, “SBY’s team, for sure, has done an excellent strategy selections in the ad, no promises, no profiles, it is all merely a subconscious mind game”.  Some even said “The luck goes to Indofood since the brand is then attached to SBY’s campaign and in turn leads to co-branding and mutualism.  To add more, there is also a counter opinion that considers the ad is lacking creativity and is not profitable for SBY’s image.
Then, finally, Indra answered his own question by saying “Apart from the aim of communication comprising familiarization, perspective, attitude/knowledge, and practice, it is essential that we use a universal benchmark on the development of creativity.  This benchmark is widely used.  Universally, a work of creative advertisement will be assessed on:

1. The relevance
2. The originality
3. The impact

Indomie has established its brand since 1993 by applying the theme of Indomie the pride of Indonesian costumers.  The campaign has created strong brand positioning forIndomie as Indonesia’s most popular noodles.  The messages penetrate through printed and audio visual media, TVC and radio ads. It has also spread through above the line and below the line advertising for more than sixteen years, making the jingle “Indomie, Seleraku” (Indomie, my taste”) even memorable for young children.
The level of acknowledgment of Indomie with all of its polite tone among customers has reached beyond 80%.  Indomie has even been the popular commodity throughout various international markets.  The sound and image,the tone and the politeness of Indomie have been strongly associated with a commercial good, daily food, affordable price and aproduct available everywhere.
Then, in 2009 the ad for SBY’s presidential campaign that is occupying officially owned Indomie audio-visual components suddenly appeared on TV and radios.  Consumers/ voters are infiltrated with SBY’s ads that have been vested   80-99% as Indomie’s.  We cannot discuss on the relevance since we will not talk about the substance of the advertisement, but we will bring the fact that this ad has utilized the sound/ audio, visual/image, tone and politeness consistently and continuously attributed to Indomie for years.  On the side of originality, the ad is obviously not original for copying, using the sound, images, tone, and politeness used by Indomie.  It will be relatively undecided to discuss if the creativity is related to the message conveyed. On the impact, some similar cases have yet occurred:

1. It will bring confusion to the audience who hears and watches the ad and the related messages since for years, those elements have been used for a certain product, yet it is suddenly used for another type of product.
2. In general, the audience will relate to the first product.
3. Consumers who resent SBY will eventually drop Indomie from their shopping list while those voters who dislike Indomie will then reject SBY.

That’s much a winding discussion of pros and cons of a presidential election ad.  The writer, in this case, considers that to agree or to resent will not be a problem as long as the public stability is not at cost and there shouldn’t be any judgmental words at this kind of moment.  Anyhow, we live in a democratic country and love eating Indomie! (pretty much irrelevant though, hehe)